The Law Officers’ Department has asked the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to sever ties with their legal representatives and that they will be representing the Commission in any future legal matter. According to the Director of Media and External Relations, Albert Massaquoi, the Department said it is their responsibility to give support to ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) on legal matters.
“We argued it out especially regarding our independence, but they insisted that we are part of the MDAs and that if we contract lawyers to represent us it means we are misappropriating government funds” Massaquoi said. However, the Commission is in the process of reviewing The Public Elections Act, 2012(PEA). In their 2019 Annual Report, on legal reform the Department of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Voters Roll took some action.
This Department did a desk review of the PEA, 2012 to include more recommendations from the experiences of the March 7th 2018 Elections and also from Election Observation Mission Groups and institutions.
Furthermore, the European Union offered to help in the reform of NEC-SL electoral laws by hiring an international consultant, Honourable Justice Dr. Chifundo Kachale, (a Justice of the Malawian Supreme Court,) to help in the reformation of the electoral laws. The inception phase of the work has been completed. The assignment is expected to be concluded in the first quarter of 2020.
However, there has been a snag in that process as the Judge did not return to complete the process. Massaquoi said the EU has recruited another person to complete the process. “So the question we asked is that if the court matters come up he might be the person to stand in. His terms of reference (ToR) actually is to review the electoral laws as contracted by the EU, but we might still get him to stand in for us I am sure he will be flexible” he said. ZIJ?5/11/20
By Zainab Iyamide Joaque